"Smooth" was originally conceived by Shur as a song called "Room 17". The lyrics were stripped off and the track was given to Thomas, who re-wrote the lyrics and melody and re-titled it "Smooth", then recorded the song as a demo to play for Santana. After hearing the song, Santana decided to have Thomas record the final version.[1] Matt Serletic (who produced Matchbox Twenty's debut album Yourself or Someone Like You) produced the song and it was released from Santana's album Supernatural.

In the United Kingdom, "Smooth" first charted at number 75 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1999. On a full release in March 2000 it peaked at number 3, spending eight weeks in the top 40. The song also peaked at number 3 in Ireland in March 2000, spending ten weeks in the Irish Charts. It remains Santana's highest charting single in either Britain or Ireland.

On Billboard magazine's rankings of the top songs of the first 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Smooth" was ranked as the number-two song overall (behind only "The Twist" by Chubby Checker)[3] and the number-one rock song in the history of the chart.[4]

In the 21st century, particularly during the summer of 2016 the song became popular as an internet meme[5] Writing for MTV.com, Sasha Geffen compared the situation to similar resurgences of All Star by Smash Mouth as well as One Week by the Bare Naked Ladies, going on to attribute the song's popularity to "the merits of its vocal absurdity" writing "There's something ridiculous about how eagerly Rob Thomas lays his earnest alt-rock croon over Santana's guitar, sweating out lines about how his 'Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa' is 'just like the ocean under the moon' without a hint of self-consciousness or irony'. The Washington Post has similarly opined that "The opening lyric 'Man, it's a hot one,'... is a punch line that requires no set-up. [6]